News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-02-10
The Dependent Pension Bill.

Several Mugwump papers, notably
the New York Eyening Post, have
made series of savage attacks upon
the measure known as the ''Depen-
dent Pension Bill" which has passed
both branches of Congress and is now
in the hands of the President. 1t is
fact certainly we'll known to all
those who were in the service during
the late war that many men who were
not disabled in the line of duty re-
turned to their homes with the germs
of disease rooted in their systems.
! Take, for instance, campaign like
that which ended in the surrender OF
Lee at Appomattox-a campaign
which embraced twelve days of the
| severest effort, and of constant eX-
posure without food, days in which
there were no hours Of rest at all,
and during several of which men were
wet to the skin, sleeping, when they
had opportunity, on the damp ground
in wet clothing, and often without a
covering, in the chill March and early
April airs it not probable that thou
sands of men had their constitutions
so weakened by this exposure and
privation that, while they went out of
the army six weeks later apparently
sound men, the seeds of insidious dis
ease, which appeared soon after in
the form of rheumatism and the kin
dred ailments which always show
themselves in bodies in which the
handspring of action and vigor has
been weakened by being overstrung?
And yet these men, who are as much
invalids by the services as if they
had been wounded, cannot get pen
sions under the existing laws. Many
of the men in the service at the close
of the war were over 40years of age,
and not few over As. These men
are now nearing 65-so old that if
they escaped serious injury they are
unable to earn their bread by daily
toll. Shall such men, who have faith
fully served their country, and who
are now the objects Of public and pri-
vate charity through no misconduct
on their part, be sent to peor-houses
with the consent of a rich nation of
sixty millions of people, which TO-
day would not be a nation but for the
efforts, the privatioDs and the sacri-
fees Of these men and their comrades !?
Any man who was in the army and
now has any extended acquaintance
~
ganization can recall a number of
men who were good soldiers, but who
are now poverty-stricken because they
are unable to labor as other men are
by reason Of premature infrmaties,
due to hardships while in the service.
Massachusetts, remembering the pledg-
es Of the great-hearted Andrew, has
cared for these broken down men or
the widows of those who have died
without pension, paying annually out
of the treasury of the Commonwealth
nearly $4,000 for their assistance.
The Grand Army of the Republic has
ascertained that seven thousand eX-
soldiers are in the poor houses of the
country, and as many more are de-
pending upon private charity. The
best ana most influential men in that
organization believe that this ought
not to be; and the National encamp-
ment, at the head of which is Gen.
Lucius Fairchild, man who is re-
spected throughout the country for
his high character and patriotism, has
made strenuous effort to secure the
passage of the bill which is now in
the hands of the President. They arc
neither greedy claim agents nor self
seekers, but the intelligent represen-
tatives of an organization to whose
roll call three hundred thousand ex-
soldiers respond. In the name Of that
notable and historic remnant, they
ask that deserving Fx- soldiers be re-
lieved from the ig1ominy of pauper-
ism. To this demand a class of
newspapers declare that these men
would open the door to great frauds,
and dilate upon q story of soldiers Of
the Revolution who, under a similar
law, put their property out of their
hands in order to avail themselves of
small stipend of $50 or $50 a year,
and that many who were not soldiers
got the pension. Fortunately the rec
ords of the soldiers OF the late war
are full, so that no such imposition
can be practiced now, if it ever was.
Moreover, the ten thousand Grand
Army posts scattered throughout the
country will zealously guard against
the pensioning of unworthy persons
under the pending bill.
The extreme bitterness with which
some of the papers have attacked the
measure and its supporters is aston
ishing. The New York Post, for in
stance, alludes to them and those who
will seek its benefits as Hessians and
plunderers. Fortunately the Ameri-
can people are not afflicted with the
Anglomania and remember with graf
itude the soldiers of the late war.
Congress has made haste to vote lib
eral, not to say lavish, pensions to the
widows of high officers who were not
in special need and has received the
cordial approval of the country why
should it neglect the actually needy in
the rank and file? Much has been
said about the cost of the Dependent
bill. The outside estimates do not
put the annual cost at over four or
five millions and the total expense at
not over forty millions at the most
Boston Journal.